The European Union (EU) spent an estimated $1.2 trillion financially supporting wind, solar and bio-energy and an incalculable amount on a cap and trade scheme to specifically lower CO2 emissions. (1) Yet, the EU's 2015 CO2 emissions increased by 0.7 percent relative to 2014, while US emissions fell to its lowest level since 1994. On an emissions rate basis, 2015 was the cleanest year in the US in over 60 years for which historical data exist. (2)
A majority of US states, especially on the East Coast, saw CO2 emissions fall by more than 10 percent. America's overall CO2 emissions have fallen by 12 percent since their peak in 2000. The US has reduced greenhouse gas emission more than any other country.
Regarding Europe, EU emissions are increasing even though it implemented a cap and trade system called the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. The program directly cost the European countries $287 billion to implement in 2011 and likely caused trillions of dollars in lost economic output. Even worse, the scheme is widely acknowledged to have not worked as CO2 emissions as mentioned above actually increased. (1)
A similar scheme planned for America would have destroyed 2.5 million jobs and lost $9.4 trillion of economic output by 2035 if implemented.
Furthermore, Europe's plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by switching from conventional oil to biofuels actually ended up increasing emissions. On average, biofuel from vegetable oil creates 80 percent more CO2 emissions than the conventional oil it replaces. (3)
The amount of money flowing into European green energy from governments and the private sector collapsed from $132 billion in 2011 to $58 billion last year. A report blames government cutbacks of subsidies and the failure of green energy to meet reliability and cost goals as a reason for declining investment. (4)
As recently as 2010, Europe made up 45 percent of the world's investment in green energy, but that has plunged to 18 percent. The reason is that despite decades of promises that renewable technologies will soon be commercially available, they still cannot compete in the market against conventional sources of electricity. (1)
The UK was routinely the top place to invest in green energy due to lucrative subsidies, but now it has fallen to 13th place. These subsidies and tax incentives were enormously costly. Brits paid a whopping 54 percent more for electricity than Americans in 2014, while energy taxes cost residents roughly $6.6 billion every year. Europe had a similar experience with green energy. The continent poured $1.2 trillion into the green energy industry to fight global warming, but its CO2 emissions and power bills just keep rising.
The average European spent 26.9 cents per kilowatt-hour on electricity, while the average American only spent 10.4 cents. These rising power bills hit Europe's poor the hardest, a factor of 1.4 times more than they hurt the rich. (1)
Have We Learned From This Experience? No!
Electricity from new wind power is nearly four times as expensive as electricity from existing nuclear power plants. The rising cost of subsidies is passed on to ordinary rate-payers, which has triggered complaints that poor households are subsidizing the affluent.
Germany plans to stop building new wind farms by 2019, gradually turning away from its $1.1 trillion wind power program. (5)
Germany and Sweden have experimented with renewable energy for electric generation and have both decided that cutbacks are needed as the goals of reduced carbon dioxide emissions and a healthier environment have not paid off, and as electric grid issues have arisen.
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Despite all this, the US government is forcing more renewables on the American generating sector, supposedly to reduce carbon dioxide emissions in order to be an example to other countries. US electricity consumers will pay for the investment in renewable fuels as utility companies pass the increased costs on to consumers. (6)
References
Andrew Follett, "Report details collapse of 'green energy' in Europe," cfact.org, May 13, 2016
Ed King, "US carbon emissions set to fall to lowest level in two decades," The Guardian, April 10, 2015
Andrew Follett, "European plan to reduce CO2 emissions backfired and increased them," cfact.org, April 26, 2016
Ben Warren, "What happens when grid parity hits?", Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index, Issue 47, May 2016
Andrew Follett, "Germany plans to abandon $1.1 trillion wind power program by 2019," cfact.org, April 9, 2016
"Lessons for Sweden and Germany," Institute for Energy Research, Canada Free Press, May 16, 2016
Jack Dini is author of Challenging Environmental Mythology. He has also written for American Council on Science and Health, Environment & Climate News, and Hawaii Reporter.
